Amnesty accuses oil companies in Nigeria of negligence

Amnesty International has said that major oil companies in Nigeria have shown negligence that has resulted in excerbating environental crisis due to oil spills.

A report by the organisation says that oil giants such as Shell and Eni are taking weeks to respond to reports of spills and publishing misleading information about the cause and severity of spills, resulting in people not receiving compensation.

The study was conducted through Decoders network, an innovative platform developed by Amnesty International to crowdsource human rights research.

“Shell and Eni claim they are doing everything they can to prevent oil spills but Decoders’ research suggests otherwise,” said Mark Dummett, Business and Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International.

“They found that the companies often ignore reports of oil spills for months on end – on one occasion Eni took more than a year to respond. The Niger Delta is one of the most polluted places on earth and it beggars belief that the companies responsible are still displaying this level of negligence.”

Amnesty has asked the Nigerian government to re-open investigations into 89 oil spills.